With a 300 year old violin in hand worth over $8 million dollars, Grammy Award-winner Joshua Bell hopes when you come to his recital on February 2nd that you will walk away with a smile on your face. Bell doesn’t consider himself a historian and won’t be giving you a history lesson while performing but, he will take you on a musical journey through every range of emotion and time period in history.

In a recent phone interview I asked Bell what piece he’s excited about playing at the recital he said, “Mendelssohn has been an exciting discovery for me within the last year. Brahms I’ve done my whole life but never with a pianist. When you play with someone else it forces you to rethink the piece. Gershwin I haven’t played in ages and I’m psyched to dig into him again.” Pianist, Sam Haywood will be accompanying Bell as he tours.

He looks forward to playing at The Van Wezel in Sarasota and hopes to have free time to explore the beautiful city. You can see Joshua Bell at The Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall on February 02, 2012 at 8pm.